Happy New Year! Here are two culinary experts sharing radically different approaches to opening a bottle of champagne. Both techniques are excellent skills to cultivate and can be used depending on the mood of the party.

The final episode of season 6 reviews these San Francisco eateries: Izzy’s Steaks and Chops, El Huarache Loco, Helmand Palace. Leslie’s last wine tip of the season is quite dramatic: Opening Champagne Using a Saber.

The ninth episode of the season features these restaurants: Pork Store Café (San Francisco), Pizzaiolo (Oakland) and Zarzuela (San Francisco). Leslie’s shares wine tips about what to do with leftover wine.

The seventh episode of season six features these restaurants: The Peasant & The Pear (Danville), Spork (San Francisco) and Ristorante Ideale (San Francisco). Plus Leslie Sbrocco shares her tips on wine gadgets.

Check, Please! Bay Area Season 6: episode 4 airs Thursday July 28 at 7:30pm on KQED TV 9. The fourth episode of the season features these restaurants: Alhamra Indian and Pakistani Restaurant (SF), Mandalay (SF), Cafe Gibraltar (Half Moon Bay).

Check, Please! Bay Area Season 6: episode 2 airs Thursday July 14 at 7:30pm on KQED TV 9. The second episode of the season features these restaurants: Nettie’s Crab Shack (San Francisco), Walzwerk (San Francisco) and Dragon Rouge Restaurant (Alameda).

Check, Please! Bay Area Season 6 premiere airs Thursday July 7 at 7:30 on KQED TV 9. You can watch the episode online, get restaurant info, read reviews, get recipes from the restaurants and learn wine tips from the host, Leslie Sbrocco.

KQED is seeking guests for Season 5 of Check, Please! Bay Area. Potential reviewers who would like to tell the Bay Area about their favorite local eatery–anything from a four-star destination to your local cafe or street food from a traveling truck–are encouraged to complete the online application. Applications must be received by Thursday, January 21, 2010.

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Few people have a middling relationship to raw oysters—this mysterious, ubiquitous bivalve is loved and loathed in equal measure. These ten East Bay spots fall on the love end of the spectrum, and offer the best quality and presentation of these strange and healthful sea creatures on the east side of the bay.

It is easy to see why bánh mì are so popular. A leftover influence from French colonization, these Vietnamese sandwiches are inexpensive and bursting with great flavors and textures. Here is a list of ten unique bánh mì shops in the South Bay.

Everyone is talking about ramen, and there’s a ramen shop in almost every East Bay neighborhood. But what about all the other delicious Asian soups out there with the same soul-warming potential? Here are ten soups (at eight venues) you might not have thought of.

Here is a helpful guide highlighting ten popular pizza restaurants in the South Bay Area. Of course, there are plenty more than ten restaurants in the South Bay that are worthy of making this list so please share your favorites in the comments.

It’s 5 o’clock, and you’re leaving the office in search of some post-work libations and snacks before dinner. You could go the traditional happy hour route — where you’re limited to a few drinks and small bites within a short window of time — or you could up the ante and visit a Japanese izakaya.

Single-serve Greek yogurt cups are doing big business. A glance at their growing real estate in the dairy aisle says plenty about the snack’s growing popularity. Most yogurt companies tout their product’s healthfulness, but they gloss over the added sugars, flavorings, dyes and binders used to make their yogurt shelf-stable and kid-friendly. Make the snack at home for a healthier snack. Kate Williams will show you how.

Two UC Berkeley professors think weeds get a bad rap. In fact, they believe the “mountains” of wild edible plants growing between the Bay Area’s sidewalks can help solve food access problems in food deserts.

Here is a helpful guide highlighting ten popular pizza restaurants in the South Bay Area. Of course, there are plenty more than ten restaurants in the South Bay that are worthy of making this list so please share your favorites in the comments.

It’s 5 o’clock, and you’re leaving the office in search of some post-work libations and snacks before dinner. You could go the traditional happy hour route — where you’re limited to a few drinks and small bites within a short window of time — or you could up the ante and visit a Japanese izakaya.